Location: Gibraltar to Essaouira
Today we had a pretty chill, slow day that gave us welcome time to recover from our packed adventure yesterday. Oscar is still scared of a monkey unzipping his bag to steal and eat his ketchup packets. He says he’s okay, but I can’t even imagine what he’s going through right now. Everyone woke up around 7:15, except for Sabrina, Maria, and Alexa, who got up at 5 am to make us bacon, egg, and cheese with crumpets and melon. It was some of the best scrambled eggs I’ve had on Argo! After breakfast and cleanup, we had more shore time in Gibraltar, where people mostly got food, called family, or took one last hot shower in Europe. I went with Jem, Maria, Sabrina, Thatcher, Liv, and Luca where we walked the Main Street, played catch, got iced lattes, swung on the swings, and splashed each other with fountain water. I also gazed longingly at the restaurant where I had gotten a quite smashing scampi and chips the day before. When we returned around 10, we helped the staff with passage prep, while the chefs prepared lunch. One fender wouldn’t deflate until Luca, Thatcher, Jem, and I all sat on it. By 11:00, we began to set sail for Africa. Or at least, motor at 3 knots with all of our sails neatly tied up. On the bright side, we have had very calm, mild weather, and the rocking of the ship is barely noticeable. For lunch, we had chicken Caesar wraps with salad and croutons. I made a delicious wrap with lemon juice, chili flakes, black pepper, paprika, balsamic vinegar, thyme, oregano, and garlic powder. The chicken was especially good today because it was cut into thin slices and fried until it was golden brown.
After lunch, we had a quiz in Oceanography and a lecture. Bryson spent much of his free time trying to catch us a fish. At one point, we were juggling three lines and a ramen cup. After that, we had a leadership role where we were tasked with designing a charity organization. Teo, Oscar, and I made one inspired by O called For Ocean. After this, most people, myself included, took a much-needed nap, while others played Mario Kart and the chefs made dinner. We had vegetables, tomato sauce, pasta with roasted cauliflower and broccoli. I was so hungry, and it really hit the spot. For the squeeze, we talked about our earliest, most vivid childhood memories and had a rock-paper-scissors tournament. Meg wo,n so I took over her salty duty as a reward. Overall, we said our last goodbyes to Europe, we had a nice, calm day of passage, and we are all excited to make it to Africa!!
I miss everyone in my family so much, and I’m excited to see everyone for Christmas!!!
To Andreas: They played Sweat Child of Mine today during cleanup, and it made me think of you! I hope you and Kristof are having a great time with the debate!!
Goodnight, I gotta crash in my bunk till watch at 3:30.
Thanks to everyone for reading our blog!
Sam O.